Having become aware of the inadequacy of much of our language about God this semester, I have been making a conscious effort not to speak about God in gendered pronouns. I’ve never liked using neuter pronouns, but the author of one of our textbooks (Stephen Bevans) used the construction “Godself” in place of “himself” or “itself.” It has grown on me over the semester, but as I wrote my final this weekend and intentionally tried to avoid gendered language, I came up with several real gems:

“God in God’s essence is unknowable, but God reveals Godself through God’s energies.”

“In revealing Godself, God invites people into relationship with Godself.”

“God revealed Godself in powerful ways to the nation of Israel, and God continues to reveal Godself regularly when Christians gather together to break bread and read the Scriptures.”

I hope Godself grants me some sleep soon…